Well the p4 1.7GHz has a 400Mhz FBS and 256KB L2 cache. The 2.53GHz version has a 533MHz FBS and double L2 cache. I'm trying to get the most out of my older motherboard (Asus P4S533) and possibly run Windows 7 later if I can find drivers.

Is it worth the upgrade for gaming in Windows XP? Or would a stronger graphics card be a better choice? My card is 64MB.Edited by computerdude92 - 12/13/11 at 12:44am

I would skip the 2.53 Ghz and look for a Northwood or better, if your board will support a 81w CPU. The 3.06 Ghz chip has Hyperthreading which will be a big bonus in such a old machine, and you can pick up OEM's on ebay for like $18-$50.

Edit: Board only supports 2.53 Ghz, so ya I guess that would be your best bet Edited by Warmonger - 12/13/11 at 12:47am

There should be a decent bump in performance, and upgrading to something like a 3850/4650 AGP should be quite a bit better.
I wouldn't sink too much into this though. A sempron 140, and a simpe AM2+/3 motherboard shouldn't be too much more.

Well you can pick these processors up for around 8 bucks, far from a new setup. I recently seen a lot of around 100+ Pentium 4 1.8ghz chips actual OEM sell on ebay, brand spanking new P4 (never ran a single cycle) at $12 a pop. Tho I do agree old technology is a sink hole, for around $150 you can buy a Athlon II Regor 250, AM3 motherboard, and 8 gigs of high quality memory. Which would put you miles ahead of any Pentium 4.